I’ve made some changes to my Game Room of Doom. Yeah, that’s where all bad guys go to get their ass kicked in video games. Can you spot the difference? Can you?

Alright, I’ll help you guys (and gals) out with this one. Let’s start with this Nintendo styled fridge of mine where I have added a Nintendo logo sticker (printed by yours truly in living color) on each side as well as having added more stickers to complete the transparent door.

That’s Wario, Mega Man, Samus, Link, Tanooki Mario, Classic Sonic and Donkey Kong right there. Also I’ve added a Metroid (from Super Metroid) to the handle. The box beneath the fridge contains Wii peripherals such as baseball bats, golf clubs, knuckle-dusters etc. It reads “Speltillbehör” which may sound bad enough for most to run away with their tails between their legs, but it has a much nicer meaning behind it.

Commence Swedish lesson no. 1!

Speltillbehör: Game Accessories

Spel: Games, any kind really

Tillbehör: Accessories

Pronounciation: “Spaleteelbayheaur”

The left hand side now looks like this, with my loose cart games placed in this manner to allow me to easily browse through them. Well, I’ve put that NES Carrying Case from Forty Four under those by now as well, lifting them up a bit higher.

Then I finally found what I’ve been searching for all year, some kind of “boxes with drawers”, preferably stylish, and who didn’t forcibly pull my money out of my bottom. Finally I found them, at IKEA, of all places, made specifically for their shelves. They were called Lekman, which translates to… wait a minute!

Commence Swedish lesson No. 2!!

IKEA: No idea. Really, I don’t know why they named the chain like that.

Lekman: Layman, I have no idea what they mean naming those boxes like that.

Pronounciation: “Eekayaa” and “Laykmann”

And here it is, opened up, drawer drawn out, the goodies revealed. This is a neat way to store peripherals and to give a clean and neat look while still being able to view the stuff through the semi-transparent color and thus retaining a video-game esque vibe to the design of the room.

By the way, that Wii U Sports Connection is my brother-in-law’s, I’m safekeeping it for him.

First I played some Wrecking Crew, which is a really good game and one of my favorites for the system. You’re Mario that works in a wrecking crew (duh) together with Blackey (the predecessor to Wario) who is doing his best to wreck (hehe) your work. There’s a Level Editor which is easy and fun to use and quite intuitive, and I guess that’s kind of what they used to make the levels for the game. The only downside is that you can’t save them, and after you’ve made your 3 levels and reset the game, they’re gone.

FOREVER!

That’s the MartianOdd level which I made. I altered it when I noticed you couldn’t complete it considering how I placed the upper port-a-potty stalls (that’s what I see them as!). It was a good one, but unfortunately now it’s lost…

FOREVER!

And then I played myself some Robocod… I mean, Robocop! It’s a decent game in my opinion. When you’ve finished the level you get this derpy cutscene. When I saw it I thought he looked like this guy when speaking:

That’s the game board of the NES game Mendel Palace, right there. It still freezes up after choosing a stage, but boots up perfectly and shows no internal or external signs of damage. The connectors look very good too, so I don’t get what the problem is. Do you?

That’s another nostalgia inducing picture brought to you by The Martian Oddity.

In Vegas, of all places, we went video game hunting (knowing that US games are way cheaper than in Europe mostly).

First place we hit up was Game World (description and a small tour to follow in a separate post). The owner was really nice and the service was good, and the stock not too shabby, we found a lot of good NES titles and, though I didn’t end up buying any, there were a lot of good Gamecube and Nintendo DS titles there for good prices, as well as some arcade cabinets and retro demo stands.

Anyhow, we ended up buying a few NES titles that easily would’ve cost 2-3x more in Sweden, so a good haul I say:

Super Mario Bros./ Duck Hunt:

If you haven’t heard of this game chances are you’ve lived under a rock in an area without electricity. Why did I buy this, you say? Because I didn’t have Super Mario Bros.!! We used to have it but the cartridge got lost, so we bought this Game Pak and it works like a charm. The price tag: 7 $. I’m sure I could’ve gotten it much cheaper but not at home so I got myself this one. That roughly translates to 4,5 £, which isn’t all too bad.

Startropics:

This is an action-RPG that’s in a relatively modern setting (the early 90’s to be exact, as one of the girls you speak to in the first town explicitly states how proud she is to be Miss 1990 or 1991). You’re a young man with a Yo-Yo that’s supposed to save your father, and then you go on an epic quest to save…something. I haven’t got the plot down as of yet, but I’ve heard great stuff about this game and from what I’ve played of it, this seems to be a really good game with a lot going for it. The price tag? 7 $. Nice.

Snake Rattle & Roll:

There are a lot of people remembering playing this game as kids, and I’ve actually been recommended the game by Stephanie of Misprinted Pages (who incidentally just booted up her own Video Game themed blog Lost Pixels). I really liked this one, I played it with my bro, but man can it be challenging when it comes to the tight controls and the psuedo-3D environments. It plays fairly well, though, and is a blast to play.

It’s platformer where you control the snakes Rattle and Roll through a fiendish landscape where you eat pieces of enemies and tounge-stab them to death, very much as Tao Bai Bai did to General Blue:

Only this time you’re backed up by awesome 50-60’s rock tunes in 8-bit! For 7$ I went for it.

Gotcha! The Sport:

I only bought this game because of two reasons:

1) The game is a Light Gun game which I haven’t heard of, nor do I think it was released in Sweden

2) The cover sports an awesome dude with a cocky smile

I’m not sure if this is supposed to be a paintball game, or lasers etc., but I feel it’s downplaying the actual theme of the game. While I don’t have Light Guns (I’ll get some though) and don’t have an old TV, I only booted it up to see what it was like, and you simply see a lot of enemy soldiers shooting at you and you have a few seconds to shoot them first. That’s warfare, and I’d hardly call it a sport.

Price tag: 5 $

Fester’s Quest:

The title screen doesn’t exactly set the mood for the rest of the game which is insanely difficult and dark. Also, it’s called “Uncle Fester’s Quest” on the title screen, but for some reason they dropped “Uncle” on the cover of the cartridge. It’s a fun but challenging game which some love and some loathe, me being somewhere in between. I remember this from a friends’ from when we were kids, and it’s a must have for the NES in my opinion. And for 5 $ I didn’t hesitate.

Then we went to A Gamer’s Paradise, to the South Store, where we scored some gold, well, at least I did score some realgold.

Legendary Wings:

This is a game that frequently is on lists of forgotten NES gems, of games that are really good but not well known. This particular one I got to know through Let’s Get!!’s Halloween Special episode where Eric plays a frightened Luigi in the episode Top 10 Goriest 2D Bosses, and also presents the game in his Valentines Day Special.

It’s a vertical shooter that through some segments shifts to a horizontal shooter, and instead of controlling a plane you control something immensely more badass:

An angel with a gun.

And the game is made by none other than Capcom, so there you go, I had no problems forking out 9 $ for this one.

Mendel Palace:

This is a game that was produced by Game Freak, believe it or not. The art style reminds closely of that in the early Pokémon series as it was designed by none other than Ken Sugimori, the Art Director of the company.

It’s a fun puzzle game. especially in 2-player, where you turn floor tiles to defeat enemies and to clear the level. Unfortunately my copy freezes right after selecting the level, which means that I’ll have to try to fix it… cleaning the pins hasn’t helped, but if you know some way to fix this I’d be very grateful if you’d share that knowledge with me. As you can see: it cost 7 $.

Pinball:

A Black Box Series classic, this game is not the best Pinball game for the NES, but not really that bad either. As with most early pinball games it turns stale rather fast, but for what it is it’s a really fun and entertaining game. For 3 $ I couldn’t stand it up, so I bought it.

Zelda II: Adventure of Link

Here’s the gold I was speaking about. No, I didn’t get actual gold, duh, I got a gold colored cartridge. It’s in a noticeably used condition, but works very well and cost me 14 $. Compare that to 40-50 $ in Sweden and you have me by the horns, I had to buy this one.

Mega Man Anniversary Collection:

This game wasn’t even released in Europe, and all version are US imports that cost between 20-40 $, add shipping to that price and you’ll have to cough up 60-70 $ for a copy.

The game contains all Mega Man games up until Mega Man VII, and aside from the fact that they’ve swapped the A and B buttons, making it more of a challenge, they’re well worth the 25$ I paid for it.

And I also visited a store in Los Angeles, Entertainment Exchange, where I only found one game I’d been searching for at a reasonable price:

Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2

I’ve already spoken about the first game in a previous post, and I’ve looked forward to get a copy of the second game, which is harder to get by in Europe, for a long time. I found one copy for 20 $, and compared to a price tag of 30-40$ around here I got it. I’m looking forward to playing this one!

‘There’s a plethora of gamer shows on the Internet and there are often too many of them to browse through. I will list the ones I follow, in an attempt to introduce you to shows you shouldn’t miss out on, and write why they are awesome. I’ll even give you a Link to the posts!

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Happy Console Gamer:

There aren’t many shows who really can show the enthusiasm of gamers as this one does. It feels genuine and the episodes are well made and have a lot of content, often centralized around the nostalgia of gamers that grew up late 70’s-90’s. There’s a full length feature movie based on the Happy Console Gamer, and it’s available on Youtube for free viewing!

Angry Video Game Nerd

While the guys behind Happy Console Gamer focus on nostalgia and the fun bits of gaming fandom, the Angry Video Game nerd is notorius for bashing and raging over really bad games from our childhood, be it games one bought with hard earned money and who didn’t deliver, games that were rented in vain giving us a dull weekend or games that are an abysmal abomination to mankind. He also reviews a lot of movies, which is a passion of his since childhood, and has a full length feature movie on the works based on the AVGN fandom which is to be released to local cinemas.

The Game Chasers

This is about two guys searching the state of Texas (and sometimes even beyond the borders of the state) in search of completing their video game collections. They are often able to get great deals, scouring flea markets, pawn shops and more, and fight competitively over rare titles. Basically it’s finders keepers, and the competition is tough!

Pat the NES Punk

Pat is a NES Punk. He collects first and foremost NES games and has a nearly limitless knowledge on all things NES. He also scours flea markets in Flea Market madness with his pal Frank in search of great deals. The episodes are mainly focused on comedy while delivering relevant information about the games.

The Completionist

Jirard tries to complete games to 100%, about 1-3 games a week, just to be able to tell you if a game is worth to complete or not. He’s accompanied by voice commentary from Greg, who has an impressive voice acting ability, and sometimes even lets him play some games as The Mediocre-ist, ultimately leading to Jirard suffering a mental breakdown and needing to get help to get back into the groove. It’s fun, it’s interesting, and well made.

Happy Video Game Nerd

Originally created as an anti-Angry Video Game Nerd, and even sporting a parody and “nice” version of the AVGN theme, this show has since then evolved to stand on its own. It’s about a dude that plays awesome games for you to show what’s good and what’s not. This is kind of a “feel good” show but with video games, and that’s great.

Video Game Take Out

This is a gaming show mainly focused on portable gaming. It gives a pretty informative opinion about games, so this is all about facts and the presentation and gameplay of games.

The Video Game Years

This is a collaboration by the dudes behind the shows in Retrowaretv.com, where they summarize gaming since the 70’s year by year, painting an epic picture of video game development and history throughout the years- year by year. It’s both informative and humorous, as it becomes entertaining when all contributors get together with their different personalities and create a great mix of different opinions and video game knowledge.

The Gaming Historian

If you like history and video games, like I do, then this show certainly is for you. We’re presented important facts from video game history in a professional and informative way without being bored in any way. That’s amazing!

Gamester81

He’s a game collector that has an impressive collection of both common and rare systems, initially having started his channel as he saw no coverage of the rarer systems in his collection on Youtube. He has an impressive reservoir of knowledge of all things games, and is possibly the nicest guy on Youtube.

Let’s Get!!

Eric reviews games with a lot of oddball humour, ultimately giving a product of entertainment and a lot of laughs. Also he seems to know Japanese, so expect to have some Japanese words and names actually pronounced correctly for once. Now where to “put it”…